Friday, July 31, 2015

You guys ready for a post that will knock your socks off?!? I don't know about you but it is still hot here in California, still very much summer, but I'm longing for the colder weather and the changing leaves of the fall – my most favorite season. And what goes hand in hand with fall – the gorgeous dark and sultry vampy tones. From eggplant to garnet and wine to mulberry – I've got a sampling of 20 different polishes from my collection. So let's get to it shall we?!?!

For my sanity's sake, I'm not going to link to each individual polish here (to be honest maybe one or two of these aren't available to purchase any more) but I'll post to the brand's sites so you can peruse at your own leisure if you'd like. Also I'll just be discussing color and consistency of these polishes, but there were no difficult formulas and I think all were 1-2 coaters!

Welcome to the wine inspired shades, otherwise known as the vampy colors I am MOST drawn to when browsing vampy nail polish.

As you can see above, in direct light these all look very similar. Life on the Dark Side has golden flakies in it which sets it apart from the rest and gives it a slightly more raspberry hue. Black Orchid, BEWBS and I Never Drink Wine are all very similar, though I Never Drink Wine is slightly lighter in hue. Paris is the darkest and raisin in color.

Welcome to my collection of garnet/hickory type shades.

Now I grouped my vamps together as best I could while looking at these in the bottle, so forgive me if some of the groups aren't as cohesive as the others. From thumb to pink we have Elevation Polish Bog Laurel 2, Colors by Llarowe Obsessed with Marilyn, Bear Pawlish Bathory, a-England Briarwood and Bear Pawlish Close But No Cigar.

Clearly Bog Laurel 2 is the most pink of this whole post, I would even argue it isn't quite vampy enough. Obsessed with Marilyn is more dark raspberry leaning. Bathory is almost an oxblood red. Briarwood has a more scattered holo finish and is a blackened oxblood that leans pretty brown. Close but no Cigar is a warm brown holo – unlike anything else in this post clearly.

Homecoming is a gorgeous dark royal purple with faint golden flakies which give it a lovely golden glow. Redwood, Rebecca and Sleeping Palace are all similar in color – a dusty eggplant purple – but differ in holo finish. Redwood has a linear holo finish with several matching flakies giving it depth. Rebecca is a linear holo with scattered holo micro glitter. Sleeping Palace is more scattered and opaque when compared with the others. Poetry is the odd duck out in this group, but it is a lovely brighter shade of magenta-leaning purple with matching flakies.

Vampy Valentine Holo is a linear holo with scattered holo microglitter. It is very jam-like in color. Cuts in my Heart smidge darker than Vampy Valentine and just a tad more plum in color. When the cherry meets the spoon is more sangria colored to me and has these awesome cool colored multichrome flakies throughout and is more jelly in consistency. Bromeliad is the most purple of this set and I would say it is a gorgeous creamy magenta leaning violet with a golden flash. Mulbeary Lane is the most red leaning of this group, but is close to mulberry in color due to its bright violet holo flash.

Whew, you guys, that was a ton of effort and I am spent! Just finished my glass of wine and I am ready to head to bed. This heat wave has totally zapped me of energy so I'm acutally pretty proud of myself for slugging through this.

So please, reward me for my hard work and share with me your favorites from this epic showdown in the comments section. My favorite vamp family is the wine colored family which I covered first and I just love all five of those polishes I show cased there (I can't choose between the ILNP, Darling Diva and Smitten Polish). Some others that stand out to me are INLP Homecoming, Literary Lacquers Rebecca, Always Rebecca and Elevation Polish When the cherry met the spoon.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Hey guys, I had plans to write an epic post comparing all my vampy colors tonight, but you know real life kind of got in the way! One of my very best friends just gave birth to her first child today (which will be yesterday by the time you read this), so I was busy falling in love and becoming an "auntie" to little Zachary.

So since I didn't get to my epic post, I didn't want to leave you with just nothing, so I thought I'd leave you with my simple yet stunning swatches of Indigo Bananas Hole in the Sky.

This gorgeous polish is a gorgeous purple jelly polish with amazing red flakies and holographic finish. It takes three coats for this opacity but this is a stunner you guys. I have it on my toes right now because I don't like to not see it for long periods of time (and I usually rock pedis for far too long as is).

Revisiting this swatch is making me want to wear this again like WOAH. This baby is amazing and if you don't have it I suggest you go out and change that immediately! I only have a mini bottle and I am seriously considering getting a backup and I never get backups for anything!

Anyway, today was full of the feels and I am just so happy for my friend and her family and her new adventure. Hopefully someday soon this will be me (we are currently trying), but for now I am just on cloud nine!

Monday, July 27, 2015

Hey guys, I'm going to be a bit short on words for this post as I am writing super late the night before this goes live, I just arrived home from a weekend full of wine and too much sun and just spent the last hour working on a news alert for some breaking news that is day-job related.

I originally drafted this so you all won't miss out on Elevation Polish's special Yeti polish of the month. It will go away after this month and it is just too special to pass up in my humble opinion! I've got two looks for you today featuring this beauty.

First off I just wanted to show you the beauty of this gorgeous topper. This is one coat of Elevation Polish Yeti the stone Warrior over two coats of KBShimmer Bahama Drama. Yeti the stone warrior is a holographic topper with platinum/silver shards throughout. I thought it gave it a rather starry effect so I created this next look with just that in mind!

I decided to make a twilight look by layering Yeti the stone warrior over a gradient with some fun bamboo in the foreground. The gradient (which I just absolutely love this combination) was made with KBShimmer Leggo My Mango, KBShimmer Bahama Drama and Literary Lacquers Mysterious Irrevocable Sacred. Let me just take a moment to give a shout out to this Lit Laq. This color, a gorgeous purple holo has the most beautiful blue flash to it which is what I thought really pulled this twilight look together. I stamped on top using my Rica Blackout polish and my Bundle Monster BM-424 plate.

And since the Elevation Yeti reminded me so much of stars, I thought it would be perfect over this gradient and I was totally right!

Yeti the stone warrior is a limited edition polish and only available this month (July) so I promise you definitely don't want to miss out!

Friday, July 24, 2015

Happy Friday everyone! I finally get to share with you my first purchases from Darling Diva Polish. They've been on the scene for quite awhile and I have no idea why I've never purchased from them before, clearly I was delusional!

Anyway, needless today in addition to being so in love with all these colors, I was so impressed with the brand too! The formula on these polishes was spectacular and they shipped within less than 24 hours, which was amazing too! So let's get to these gorgeous swatches shall we?!?

This is Darling Diva Polish Peekablue. This is a gorgeous squishy blue jelly polish with holographic sparkle and color shifting flakies. In the bottle it looks a little more bright blue than it does on the fingers, but I think this color would also look really cool layered over a lighter color (that might make the blue pop even more). Because this was a jelly I applied three coats, but I bet most people could get away with two coats. The formula was totally a breeze to work with too. Keep reading in this post to see a fun nail art look I added to my Peekablue mani!

This is Darling Diva Polish The Alchemist. This was totally the first polish that tempted me by Darling Diva and I knew when they were having a sale recently that it was a must purchase. This is a stunning bright red holo with gorgeous violet flash in its strong linear holo finish. The best part about this stunner – ONE COAT. No joke. This polish is out of this world amazing. It's fire-y and delicate all at once and I am in total love. Such an amazing red!

And of course I'm a sucker for a good vampy polish so I always had my eye on Darling Diva Polish BEWBS!!! as well. This polish's formula was similar to The Alchemist, it could almost be a one coater, but I applied two coats here for extra umph! This is a gorgeous dark berry purple and it is vamp at it's very best. Expect to see me wearing this a lot in the fall (my most favorite season ever!).

In fact, I'm actually wearing this baby now. I am headed on a weekend away to the Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo to go wine tasting and beer tasting with a bunch of coworkers and ex-coworkers this weekend. I broke out BEWBS because the color reminded me so much of wine and it just so sophisticated looking!

And finally I finish with this fun art look I created using Jolie Polish Baby Green Hulk stamped using my new Bundle Monster Shangri-La plates for this fun buffet stamping look over Peekablue. I thought the green would be a good pairing because it pulls some of the fun shift in the flakies of Peekablue!

Anyway, I can't say enough good things about this brand. I already ordered from them again actually. And you should totally check them out too! If you visit Adventures in Acetone, another amazing nail blog that knocks it out of the park with her swatches and nail art, you maaaaay find an awesome discount code for this brand! So what are you waiting for?! What are you dying to get from this brand?!

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Today I have a fun look to share with you featuring my new plates I recently purchased from Bundle Monster – the Shangri-La nail plate set.

I loved the Shangri-La set, it has ten great plates that all have these abstract cohesive looks. So with one plate, you can have a different look on all nails, but they will somewhat match in design. Very useful for when you don't know what you want to stamp, but you know you want variety on each nail!

The closer image really shows just how awesome the holo top coat is and how fun the stamping image is. And well, I love showing you macro shots.

The day I wore these to work, I chose a matching dress, and that wasn't even on purpose – but the ladies at work always point out that I do that often. I just love this color palate though and I'd like to do an even more matchy-matchy look with the print of this dress.

That's it for today but I've got some super fun things coming your way soon! On Friday I plan on showing off another new-to-me indie Darling Diva Polish and next week watch out – I've got a vamp comparison post you're definitely going to want to check out. If you're curious for a sneak peek, better check out my Instagram account and if you aren't following me there yet, why not!?!? ;-)

Monday, July 20, 2015

I've heard of this brand for quite sometime, but it was the preorder for the fan favorites collection that finally got me to make some purchases. Another plus to this shop, you can order 10ml mini bottles, which is what I did to first try this brand out. Let's get to the swatches shall we?

This is Monster's Tea at Tiffany's, which is a lovely aqua-green polish with brighter more green-green shimmer. The shimmer really comes out to play in direct light. This was super gorgeous and soft and lovely. Reminds me of a gorgeous spring afternoon. The formula did not self level super well – not sure if it was the smaller brush on the mini bottle or just the thickness of the polish or what. I used three coats and a top coat to reach this opacity and smoothness.

This is Sordid End, which is a lovley periwinkle leaning pastel purple with beautiful bright blue shimmer. The shimmer in this one is most noticeable in direct light, but is more noticeable in shade thank Monster's Tea at Tiffany's was. The shimmer in this one is what truly makes is spectacular in my eyes. Definitely unique in my collection. The formula on this one was similar to Monster's Tea at Tiffany's – was on the thicker side, did not self level well and took three coats for opacity. I think for best application for these two, I would do one smooth coat and then wait a few minutes before adding another coat.

This is Fare the Wind, which is a beautiful royal purple with strong blue shimmer and a subtle holographic finish. The formula on this polish was much better, not too thick or thin and needed only two coats for opacity.

These three above were purchased as part of the Fan Favorites preorder and are listed as sold out on the site. I did here murmurings in the Facebook fan group that the leftover stock may be listed on the site at some point. I don't know a date sorry!

This is We Saved the World, I Say We Party!, which is a gorgeous pale pink linear holo that leans slightly purple. Formula on this was great as well, opaque in two thin coats. I loved how delicate this color is.

And finally we have Cuts in My Heart, which I got as part of the February Addicted to Holos Box. This is a gorgeous raspberry holo with beautiful violet linear holo flashes. The surprise of this polish is that it was slightly textured, which isn't really my favorite, but if you double top coat it it will probably be smooth. I used one layer of top coat and it still had a textured finish.

Overall, I loved the look of all of these polishes. While some of the formulas were finicky, I'm not 100 percent sure it wasn't just the brushes from the mini bottles I purchased. But I am still definitely interested in this brand and will be watching for future releases. So many of these polishes are pretty unique to my collection and that is what piques my interest the most.

So let me know, have you tried BEGLs before? Which polishes are must haves?! Which of this sampling did you like the best?!